Today's News

It’s tough to beat a team three times in a season, as the cliche goes.

And when it comes to rivalries and end-of-season tournaments, you can throw the records out the window, as a couple more cliches go.

The Chiefland boys’ basketball team came out on the winning end of their pair of meetings with Bronson in the regular season, but it was Monday’s matchup in Cross City, which marked the opening of the District 1A-7 tournament, that mattered most.

In the early going, it looked like it might be the Eagles’ night, as junior Cole Langston threw down back-to-back wide-open dunks and sophomore Blake Homan sank a 3-pointer from half-court at the first-quarter buzzer.

But Chiefland chopped a 10-point deficit down to 3 just before the half, and junior Payne Parnell kept taking – and making – shots for CMHS, eventually draining the final go-ahead 3 with a minute to play, helping lift the Indians to a 50-45 win.

The Indians face top-seeded Bell in the semifinals Friday, Feb. 16, at 7:30 p.m. at Dixie County High School.

The first paragraph of a story in the March 10, 1892, edition of the Memphis Appeal-Avalanche stated that not since the race riot of 1866 has the community been in such a fever of excitement as it was yesterday.

The story described the lynching of three black men: Tom Moss, the owner of People’s Grocery and two clerks, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart. The store was located in a mixed-race neighborhood known as the Curve. A white grocer named William Barrett was apparently losing business to the nearby People’s Grocery. One narrative tells of rumors and trumped up charges sending a large group of armed white men into the store. Gunshots were traded and several white men were injured. An accounting of events by Damon Mitchell stated a racially charged mob grew out of a fight between a black and a white youth near People’s Grocery.

A story dated March 10, 1892, in the New York Times stated, “today showed a decided reaction from the excitement into which the city was thrown yesterday by the lynching of the three negro rioters Tom Moss, Will Stewart and Calvin McDowell …”

Chiefland City Commissioners ratified a three-year agreement with the police department Monday, Feb. 12, at the regular meeting in the municipal building.

City Manager Mary Ellzey said she and City Attorney Norm Fugate have worked with the North Central Florida Police Benevolent Association since April 4, 2017 and now tentatively agree to every article in the City’s Proposal No. 5, dated Dec. 11, 2017.

Four of the department’s eight eligible members voted Jan. 31 to approve the agreement that is affect from to Oct. 1, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2020.

A summary of changes are:

• Field Training Officer and K9 Officer salary differential changed from 5 percent to a $75 stipend per pay period.

• Employees assigned to the Levy County Drug Task Force and report for work directly to the Levy County Sheriff’s Office shall be allowed to drive their patrol vehicle home; take home patrol vehicles shall not be driven outside of Levy County.

Levy County was left out of the conversation for several months in 2017 while a state and federal agency talked among themselves about finding a solution to a problem; a solution that could place the county in legal jeopardy.

Levy County Attorney Anne Brown said in a recent interview that her office filed a public records request under the Freedom of Information Act to find get correspondence from the Florida Department of Equal Opportunity and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

She stated in an email dated Nov. 9, 2017, that the county has expended countless hours throughout the years to find a solution to the septic and other issues.

Brown wrote that it was her understanding that DEO and HUD would be working on a solution and would inform the county of the results of those efforts after various funding sources and options had been reviewed by DEO and HUD.

Levy County Animal Services is introducing a free trap-neuter-release program in an effort to rein in the county’s feral cat problem.

The program had its first run Jan. 25, and it was more successful than Darlene Esler, DVM, LCAS staff veterinarian, could have imagined.

With help from a couple of volunteers, the team spaid 10 females and neutered three males. One of the females was pregnant, and more were in heat, reported Esler, indicating the program is already making a modest dent on the large problem. LCAS is euthanizing around half the feral cats that are brought in. It hopes to hold a spay-neuter date at least once a month, possible more in the summer, for feral cats.

The program is aimed at treating what are commonly referred to as “community cats” or “neighborhood cats,” which includes cats that are feral but are being fed or cared for in some capacity. Those who participate can pick up traps from Animal Services, for a $25 refundable deposit. The cats are brought in the day before the surgery and picked up the day after.

An intra-county rivalry tips off the District 1A-7 boys’ basketball tournament in Cross City Monday, Feb. 12, as fifth-seeded Chiefland squares off against No. 4 seed Bronson tat 6 p.m. at Dixie County High School.

The pair of schools finished tied with Cedar Key with four district wins apiece, but Bronson won the tiebreaker on the account of its win over No. 3 seed Trenton. CKS is the No. 6 seed and faces third-seeded Trenton Feb. 13 at 6 p.m.

Chiefland won both meetings with Bronson during the regular season, edging out the Eagles on the road in 70-68 comeback win Jan. 11, before prevailing 63-58 in the rematch in Chiefland. In the latter game, the Indians pulled ahead by 23 points in the third quarter, with five CMHS scorers contributing at least seven points apiece. Quay Brodus and Jarrett Jerrels led the bunch with 15 and 11 points, respectively.

The Florida Springs Institute commends the efforts of the dozens of University of Florida research faculty and students who just completed a three-year study of Silver Springs and the Silver River. Tens of thousands of hours were spent on and under the cold spring water collecting information, and on computers analyzing the data and writing the 1,085-page final study report. After three years and roughly $3 million in state funding, UF has once again concluded that Silver Springs is experiencing excessive flow reductions and nitrate pollution.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt felt that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United States and Russia and devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations, in which, he hoped, international difficulties could be settled, according to White House.gov

As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt’s health deteriorated, he died April 12, 1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

When President Roosevelt delivered his historic fourth and final state of the union address Jan. 20, 1945, in a United States that was much more homogeneous than it is now. The 1940 census showed the U.S. population was 132.2 million; 89.8 percent were white and 9.8 percent were minorities. So, when he delivered his final address, he was speaking almost exclusively to white people.

He said, “Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice president, my friends, you will understand and, I believe, agree with my wish that the form of this inauguration be simple and its words brief.

A “Best Friends Memorial Service” was held Feb. 3 at 11 a.m. in Cedar Key at Harbour Suites on Dock Street. That was the place of choice because the town represents that closeness between friends and family. The friendship between the two women and their families that spanned 70 years.

Marjorie McGarva said she wanted to write something about both her Mom, Mary Saunders, and mother-in-law, Grace McGarva. The two families met approximately in 1941 in Arlington, Virginia.

My Dad was a floor mechanic and met Gordon McGarva on the job one day. Gordon was from Miami, Florida. They made an instant friendship.

These two families met and kept in touch through the years with phone calls, letters and visits. The families bonded quickly and the wives noticed they had similar interests: children, sewing, cooking and canning. The four Saunders girls knew them as “Aunt Grace and Uncle Gordon.” Grace and Clyde (and sometimes his brother Don) traveled in the summer months to Maine where Grace’s parents summered and owned a motel

Clyde Bowers from Chiefland. He was born on January 5, 1918. Mr. Bowers worked for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad for 32 years. He married Susie Bowers and had 11 children.

Joe Jenkins from Chiefland, Florida was born on December 25, 1906 he worked for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad for 25 years; he also worked at Bett’s Big T in Chiefland. Mr. Jenkins attended night school under Mr. Reggie Williams. He married Louise Jenkins and had one daughter, Mary Joe Jenkins. In addition to their daughter, the couple raised Lucey Freeman, Katie Catherine Brown, Richard Long, and William Spaight.